Home > Tech Tips > Storage Solutions for Laptops

Storage Solutions for Laptops
Like most people in our highly mobile, computer based, digital business world, you own a laptop.  Laptops are great because they provide almost all the conveniences of a desktop, even at Panera Bread!  Even people with iPads own a laptop or a MacBook (Apple’s version of a laptop).

The main differences between desktops and laptops are simply: Storage and Speed.  If you plugged your laptop into an Internet connection via an Ethernet cord, the speed would be comparable, but laptops are designed to be mobile, so therefore we use Wi-Fi, which is slower than Ethernet in most cases.  Storage is another issue, if you custom ordered your laptop with extra memory and an expanded hard drive, these issues may not be relevant to you, but most laptops are bought off the shelf and therefore lies the issue of storage.

In our monthly January meeting, Tom brought up a client with this very issue (hence this post) and found that there are 2 basic answers to the shelf laptop storage issue: Add memory to the laptop or use external storage.  We all agree that external storage is the very best bet for 6 reasons:

  1. It solves the limited storage issue
  2. It transfers the data to other computers
  3. Very inexpensive
  4. Small and compact in size
  5. Durable
  6. Fast

There are a plethora of choices, especially if shopping online, determine what works best for you by considering: physical size of the drive, storage capacity, data transfer and power source.  Many externals will have both power and data transfer via USB.

Another tip: Use the High Speed 3.0 USB port on your laptop vs the normal 2.0, this will double the performance of your external regarding speed.

 

John McCann & Associates, Inc.
704-662-6845
IT Management for Small Business
Computer Services, Solutions & Support
www.McCannAssociates.com